Iain M. Banks is a fine writer. Currently my only experience with his work has been with his Culture novels. On a basic level I am pleased that Mr. Banks is not against using colorful language. I blame my inner twelve year old for saying "cool" upon seeing the word "fuck" in print.
Recently I had the pleasure of reading Consider Phlebas. I've been anxious to get my hands on the book for quite some time and never got around to buying it. Mostly out of fear of buying from a small internet storefront and wondering if there would be any hassles or delays. When I received it I was just beginning Larry Niven's The Draco Tavern which struck me as being a series of short, taoist tales of extraterrestrial interaction that fall short of actually tickling one's fancy so I was happy to put Niven's book down and dive into Consider Phlebas.
The Culture, a group of humanoids living in a post-scarcity society, have found themselves in a war against the Idirans. The Idirans have their own religious and philosophical reasons for picking the fight. Now the tale revolves around the life and adventures of Bora Horza Gobuchul who is a shapeshifting spy on the side of the Idirans. His mission is to recover a Mind, an artificial intelligence, from an off-limits planet. There's romance, space pirates, epic escapes and a game with exceedingly high stakes.
One of the aspects which really makes the book shine is the lack of technobabble and stuff that explains the technobabble preventing the characters from being overshadowed by tech and relegated to one dimensional cliches. It's very accessible to folks who don't normally read genre fiction and shy away because of the various stigmas of Star Trek and Star Wars. You know, folks who think Total Recall is science fiction. Just because it's in space doesn't mean it's science fiction.
Be forewarned that the ending is a sad one in addition to the inclusion a small deus ex machina which isn't that outrageous to distract from the novel. Just keep in mind at this technology level anything is possible. Banks makes it seem very reasonable.
Secondly I've started reading Look to Windward a kinda-sorta sequel to Consider Phlebas.
Reckon that if I had one wish and one wish only then I'd wish to be able to instantly teleport (is that redundant?) anywhere. Save gasoline by winking out of existence and reappearing at Sunset Beach in Cape May. Going to Alaska for a day. Abusing such a fantastic power for the mundane tedium (another redundancy?) of commuting to work.
Pay rentBuy seltzerSchedule repairsFind out what has to be done to cover the discrepancy between the original estimates and the estimate from the adjuster (who could not see inside the hood).
Buy cat food on Friday May 5th, 2007- Get quarters for laundry on May 5th, 2007
- Prepare for camping with raddidge for the weekend of May 11th, 2007
- Call out sick on May 9th, 2007 for court
I was somewhere in the American Southwest going to visit some woman. She lived in a gated community where all the houses were twelve inches apart from each other. When I arrived she welcomed me in and I saw there was a grossly obese man sitting on a couch.
"So is that your ex husband?"
"No, that's the house spirit."
Upon acknowledging his presence the gigantic oaf hefted himself into a standing position then fell back on the couch causing the floor to shake. Now I was in fear for my own personal safety because if this fat fuck got jealous of me he'd crush me underneath his flab.
The rest of my time was spent in the backyard looking for something in the shed. It was perpetual twilight back there.
